Saturday, 19 December 2015

ISIS operatives Mohammad Sirajuddin, Afsha Jabeen were part of same group

Mumbai:
Suspected ISIS operative Mohammad Sirajuddin (30), an Mtech, and
alleged ISIS recruiter Afsha Jabeen alias Nicole alias Nicky Joseph
(38), a graduate, knew each other through online activities and were
part of the same group of indoctrinators, a highly placed source in the
Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) said. The source, however, added
that maulana Hafij Mujib (26), arrested in November by Maharashtra ATS,
is not part of the same ISIS group and belonged to another group of
indoctrinators.
A team of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad
(ATS) is in Rajasthan and is interrogating Sirajuddin along with
officials from the Rajasthan ATS. The ATS is questioning him about his
links with other Indians in the country who he was trying to
indoctrinate. It is not clear yet if he managed to indoctrinate more
youngsters like the 16-year-old girl from Pune. However, one thing made
clear by sources was that Sirajuddin and Jabeen belong to the same group
of indoctrinators.
Sirajuddin was working as a marketing manager
of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) in Jaipur. He hails from Gulbarga in
Karnataka. Just like Sirajuddin, Jabeen was using Facebook to spread
the propaganda of ISIS and recruit youngsters. The duo made several
personal groups on Facebook using fictitious names to spread propaganda.
Jabeen had radicalised Salman Mohiuddin who had started visiting ISIS
websites and had started spreading the cause of ISIS.
Jabeen was
arrested by Hyderabad police in September this year after she was
deported from Abu Dhabi and landed by flight in Shamshabad. She said to
have recruited Mohiuddin in ISIS, who was arrested earlier this year.
Jabeen’s family comprises her husband Devendra Batra alias Mustafa and
three daughters. She lives in Tolichowki in Hyderabad.

On the
other hand, the maulana arrested from Pusad town in Yeotmal had plans of
sending youngster Abdul Malik to Afghanistan to get ‘Al Qaeda level’
training. Malik was arrested for stabbing a constable. The maulana was
also in touch with Shoeb alias Tariq Bhai (24) from Hingoli, who was out
on bail after being arrested by Hyderabad police last year allegedly
because he was a sympathiser of the banned Students Islamic Movement of
India.ATS to crack down on propagandists
The
Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) is planning to crack down on
ISIS sympathisers who are sharing propaganda material in Maharashtra on
the Internet to further the Caliphate movement. The ATS said that this
year there has been a rise in the number of websites spreading ISIS
propaganda and, in order to curb the radical indoctrination on the
Internet to create lone wolves, it is planning to crack down on those
persons who are spreading the cause of ISIS in Maharashtra.

Speaking
on the condition of anonymity, a senior Maharashtra ATS official said,
“There are many people who read ISIS’s content. Some accidentally reach
its website, some read out of curiosity. There are others who sympathise
with ISIS, but the ones that are spreading the message of the group by
spreading its propaganda on the Internet are definitely violating the
law. They can be booked under the IT Act. We are also contemplating
whether or not we can book them under the stringent Unlawful Activities
(Prevention) Act.”
Apart from the cyber cell of the Mumbai crime
branch, there is a special cyber cell of the Maharashtra ATS. Both cells
on a daily basis keep a tab on the online content being uploaded by
ISIS operatives across the globe. “Around 60 to 80 online websites that
have ISIS propaganda have been blocked by us this year. This number has
risen by a big margin as compared to last year. New websites keep
cropping up, but we are doing our best,” said the senior ATS official.
Lately, the ISIS has come out with an e-book, which explains its cause.
The senior ATS official said, “There is nothing new in it. It is similar
to other ISIS propaganda material.”

Maulana Moinuddin Ashraf from
Mumbai said, “We should not call them ISIS but NISIS i.e. Non-Islamic
State of Iran [sic] and Syria. If I claim to be the president of the US, will
people call me Mr. US President? They (ISIS) are against Islam and
against humanity. We are working on a large-scale to stop emotional and
gullible youngsters from falling prey to NISIS. All maulanas of masjids
are condemning NISIS. They NISIS is fighting over land and are killing
innocents. There is a lot of anger in Muslims because of NISIS, as they
are maligning our religion.”